Baby Steven
by Doublefangirl356
Summary: Some parts of Steven's childhood and the gems raising him.
1. pearl and steven

They just had to leave her with him. As if things could not get worse they just had to leave Steven with her. Greg was away doing important stuff at the car wash. It was the babysitter's day off, so that left Steven in the care of the Crystal Gems. They had a mission to attend to but they couldn't leave the 11-month-old alone, so they nominated Pearl to look after him while they are gone. she knew it was not because she is a Pearl, but because they hoped that this would strengthen her bond with Steven. Amethyst saw him as a small brother the second he popped into existence, Garnet took time to re-adjust but eventually she started seeing him as the new Rose, but Pearl hated him. she couldn't understand why Rose gave up her physical form for a pathetic little creature. She hated him with all her heart.

She watched as little Steven danced to the music in a shirt that was way too big for him. It looked like a dress on him. He was developing surprisingly fast for a child his age. But Pearl felt nothing for him except hatred, hatred and more hatred. He could drown in the ocean, she wouldn't care, he could fall off a cliff, she wouldn't care, he could accidentally stab himself with a knife, she wouldn't care. But Garnet and Amethyst would. They cared about Steven more than they loved themselves.

When Steven got bored of dancing, he raced towards the picnic basket and took out some paper and crayons and started to draw intently. 10 minutes or so, passed and he gave Pearl the drawing. it was a poorly drawn Pearl and Steven holding hands and smiling. Pearl looked at Steven, he was smiling proudly at what he drew. Pearl just tore up the drawing and said nothing. she looked away from Steven.

Pearl examined babies before and they always had a tendency to cry if something went wrong, exactly what Pearl intended to do. But Steven just looked baffled. Then he did something Pearl didn't expect; he hugged her.

"What are you doing?!" she yelled at him and pushed him away. But he just walked up and hugged her again. "Get off me you little..." Before she could say anything she saw concern in his eyes. The same concern Rose had when Pearl was feeling very distressed. She pushed him back. "Go away." she mumbled.

Then Steven started to do funny movements with his mouth as if trying to speak."m-mu-mums-mama,Mama!"

Those words nearly knocked her down. "What. Did. You. Just. Call. Me?" she said in a angry tone.

"Mama!" Steven yelled joyfully and started spinning and clapping his hands and repeating the word 'mama' over and over. Pearl got so angry and frustrated that she pulled out her spear and pointed at him.

"Pewl?" Said Steven moving out of the reach of the spear. "Mama?"

Pearl crumpled to the floor and started sobbing. She let the spear disperse. He acted so much like his mother, so caring, so forgiving. And yet she treated him like an outcast. Pearl felt tiny arms wrapping around her waist. It was Steven. She noticed something peculiar about his gem; it was glowing dimly. She picked him up and hugged him, she finally understood why Garnet and Amethyst cared so much about him. He was their last part of Rose left. She put him down and looked at the pieces of his drawing. She looked into the picnic bag and found some scotch tape. She taped the picture back and put the picture back in the picnic basket. In that moment she swore an oath never to let Steven get hurt.

"Steven what would you like to do?"


	2. First Bubble

Steven was like 12 months old and was already walking. Without tripping over every 5 seconds. Talk about rushing. This guy was taking it to a whole new level. Garnet and a Pearl were off on some mission and it was Amethyst's turn to babysit. She didn't really mind. She loved goofing around with Steven. They were sitting on the beach and playing catch. For Steven's amusement Amethyst turned into a dog and chased the ball that Steven threw her.

She was suppressed how gently she treated him. Maybe she subconsciously new that she could ruff house with her little brother once he's older. Soon Steven got tiered and sat down to make a sand castle. Amethyst helped him here and there but he seemed okay on his own.

"Amy, ook ook!" He said with undying enthusiasm. He could say sentences already but not perfectly.

"Yeah, Steven! It looks great! Now say Amethyst."

"Amy!" He said clapping.

"No, amethyst."

"Amy-thist. Amy-fish!"

Amethist sighed. It was progress. They talked for some more time until she heard the warp pad activate.

"Pewl! Gath!" Yelled Steven. He went back to making his sand castle.

"Hey, Pearl hey Garnet. Steven now can say my name properly! Steven show them."

"Amy-thist" He said giggling.

"Oh Steven that's so nice!" Said Pearl.

"So how did the mission go?" Asked Amethyst.

The Gems started talking and almost forgot about Steven. Meanwhile Steven got bored of making the castle. In the cliff there was a cave. Steven dashed over to explore. He lost his binky in the way.

As Steven approached a courrupted gem jumped out and landed behind Steven. It was not so large about the same size as a cheetah with green and pink stripes. It's gem was on its back leg.

"Hey, were is Steven?" Asked Pearl. Then she turned around and froze. Garnet followed Pearl's gaze. The gem was growling at Steven as he tried to reached out to touch the gem. The Gems pulled out their weapons quietly. Pearl was about to attack it but Garnet put a arm on her shoulder.

"Slowly." She just said. Pearl looked at her in disbelief and Garnet added "trust me." As they approached the monster it looked behind the gems and let out a howl. It looked back at Steven and tried to pounce on him. That's when Pearl dived and slashed the monster into dust.

"Steven are you..." she looked at him in disbelief. When Garnet and Amethyst caught up they saw it too. Steven's tiny gem was glowing and surrounding him was a pink bubble. Steven was laughing and reaching out to touch the walls of the bubble. When he saw the gems he giggled and waved. Then his bubble dispersed and he walked up towards the speechless gems and climed onto Garnet's lap and fell asleep.

The gems looked at each other and then at Steven.

"Mabye we should tell Greg about the idea of Steven living with us?" Amethyst broke the silence.


	3. Absentee Parents pt1

When Steven was little he really liked hanging out with the gems and being with them. But at around 5 the gems started to go on missions more regularly, leaving Steven alone for most of the time. At first Steven was okay with them leaving but it started getting boring without them. His dad was always at work and there were no kids to play with.

One day, when the gems needed to go on a mission and Steven was left alone he decided to play explorers and went off to the woods on the other side of the island. He had never been there before and everyone told him not to go there, but being a curious and bored child he went there anyway. The forest was bright and not gloomy at all. When Steven came to the other side of the forest he saw a huge sign saying goodbye from beach City.

"Goodbye to you too sign!" Steven waved to the sign. He was not stupid but he was a child.

He walked further until it the sun started going down.

"Okay, time to go home! The gems will be back soon!" He said happily. But then he realized he did not know where to go; since nobody told him what to do in this situation (he was five years old after all) he panicked and started running in the wrong direction and got even more lost. It started to rain and thunder echoed. That's when he got really scared. Rain poured down on him as he ran to find shelter. Steven found a small bush and hid under it. He curled up and shivering, Tried to go to sleep.


	4. Absentee Parents pt2

In the morning Pearl noticed that Steven looked really sad when she and Garnet and Amethyst stepped onto the warp pad to go to another mission. When they got to their destination Pearl suggested that they should try get over with the mission faster so that they could spend some time with Steven. They instantly agreed.

They were done at around 4 o'clock. Which gave them 4 whole hours with Steven until his bedtime. They were all excited until they returned. Steven was not in the house. He was not outside either. They searched the whole of beach city. He was nowhere to be seen. Greg was on a trip and Steven was not at the carwash either. Pearl was getting worried when Steven hadn't returned when the sun was setting. She panicked when he did not return when it got dark. She went bananas when it started to rain and when thunder started she nearly passed out. All the gems knew how much he was scared of thunder.

Even Garnet didn't know what to do. Then Amethyst suggested that they should search outside beach City and in the forest. Garnet told Pearl and Amethyst to search outside beach City. She will search in the forest.

The weather was getting worse by the second. Garnet tried to keep her cool. But she was really panicked. The rain was pouring like never before. It was very cold. When they were leaving to look for Steven, Garnet noticed that his hoodie and coat were in place. This meant that Steven was not really protected from the cold.

After about two hours of searching Garnet was about to give up and go find Pearl and Amethyst. When she heard whimpering and sobbs . She ran towards the sound. There he was; under a wet bush, in a puddle was Steven. He was curled up, wet and crying. Garnet almost started to cry tears of joy. She found him. Finally.

"Garnet?" He Asked coughing. Of course! He was probably sick from the cold.

"I-I'm so-sor-sorry." He shivered. Garnet picked him up and said "it's okay, Steven." Garnet hugged him close and started walking towards a nearby warp pad.

She put some cereal for him to eat. She told him that she will go find Pearl and Amethyst.

She found them near the leaving beach City sign. When they warped back into the house and Pearl saw that Steven was okay (mostly). Pearl ran towards him and started crying happy tears and hugged him do hard that Steven stopped coughing. The rest of the week one of the gems had stay and to look after Steven who got the flu from the cold weather.


	5. Conquer

"Cmon Sapphire, if we don't wake him up now he will stay up all night! That means we will have to keep him company." Said Rubie with a tinge of annoyance. Sapphire has been trying to wake him up for fifteen minutes straight. She just couldn't bring herself to touch him. Sapphire has this thing, that if she gets scared or angry, anything she touches will be covered in ice.

"I can't! I'm too scared!" Just as Sapphire said that Steven started to squirm. From past experiences Rubie knew what was coming; Steven would start to cry, Sapphire would start to panic and if Sapphire panicked the whole temple would turn into a popsicle.

But to their surprise Steven didn't cry or scream or do anything a normal baby will do. Instead he just did a cute baby yawn and started to try and climb out of bed.

"Awwwww" They said in unison.

Steven looked at them and giggled with glee, reaching out to touch Sapphire's long hair. Rubie picked him up and let Steven play with Sapphire's hair.

"Why don't you take him?" Asked Rubie handing Steven to Sapphire.

"No, no." She said biting her lip. "It's to risky."

Rubie wanted to press on but she noticed the ice crystals forming here and there. She did not want the room to be turned into a giant refrigerator so she just said "why don't you play with Steven, and I get him something to eat."

Sapphire didn't resist so Rubie put Steven into the play pen and offered to put Sapphire into the pen. She picked up Sapphire with ease and put her over the gate.

Rubie had no problem with looking after Steven, but Sapphire was scared to do something wrong and make Steven cry. It was hard to look after Steven as one person (Garnet) so whenever it was Garnet's turn to babysit Steven, Garnet would unfuse, Rubie and Sapphire took care of Steven.

Rubie looked at the kitchen. She was usually the one in the playpen with Steven and Sapphire would make the food.

"Hey Sapphire! Which one will he like more? Carrot or pear?"

Sapphire answered almost instantly " Apple."

"We are fresh out of apple! I guess I have to go to the store. Be back." And Rubie left.

Sapphire was watch Steven cutely crawling around the pen, chasing a red ball with a blue star. He would push it away and crawl after it. Sapphire saw many ways things could go wrong. He could start building using his blocks and the thing will fall on him. Or the ball might fall out of the pen and he will start crying or or…. Sapphire took a deep breath and decided to focus on Steven. Since he was half gem he physically matured faster than a normal baby. He has already begun taking his first steps. But he was wobbly, so he sticked to crawling.

The ball landed next to her suddenly that Sapphire jumped a little. Little Steven came crawling towards her.

He reached out to Sapphire as if asking her to pick him up. Then Sapphire realized he WAS asking her to pick him up.

"No, no, no." She said. She tried to focus his attention on something else. Sapphire picked up the Ballard threw it to the other side of the pen. Not that she was disgusted by him, she was just scared to hurt him.

Unfortunately Steven paid no attention to the ball and started tugging on Sapphire's dress. When she didn't respond Steven's eyes began to water. Then he started crying.

Sapphire got so scared that thick ice began to form in the room. Steven kept crying. She tried shaking a toy in front of him but he kept crying. Sapphire realized that she had no choice. She as gently as she could, picked him up. Sapphire moved her hair out of her eye. Steven stopped crying and squirming. He started giggling and his gem glowed dimly.


	6. Hide and Seek

During a mission Pearl got poofed. Amethyst and Garnet didn't want to tell Steven because he was only three years old. They put her gem in Greg's basement figuring that that was the most hidden place in Steven's life. Garnet just told Steven that Pearl was playing hide and seek with them and the first to find her wins. At first Steven, being a huge fan of hide and seek, was very excited at first. He searched every corner of the house with no luck.

After three days, it got boring. After a week Steven suspected something was wrong. Pearl would surely come back now. One day he decided to search Greg's basement which he was very scared of, but his at the time competitive nature got the best of him.

As he walked down the stairs, they creaked and felt the light switch and turned it on. It was surprisingly low. There in the middle of the room was a small chair with a small cushion on it. On the cushion there was a relatively big gem on it. It was round and Pearly white.

"Ooooo, pretty!" Steven said and reaching out walked forward a few steps. He took the gem and started tossing it into the air and catching it. He giggled every time he caught it.

Suddenly the gem started to shake and glow. Steven threw it on the cushion and started crying in alarm. The gem rose up and a silhouette of a woman appeared more features grew and expanded from it. Then Pearl dropped down.

"Steven?" She asked in confusion.

"I found Pearl, I win!" He Yelled and started running around the room laughing.

"Whaaaaa…?"


	7. Dark Drawings

When Steven was six, the gems (even though Pearl strongly disagreed) let Steven walk around beach city alone without a supervisor. As long as he stayed out of the forest (no problem after that traumatic experience a year earlier) he could go anywhere alone.

Once he went out to explore the cliffs. The gems were on a mission again so Steven had to be be a bit more careful. He jogged along a track letting the sun shine on his face. He hummed 'We Are The Crystal Gems' as he skipped along.

Everything was fine until he tripped over something.

"Ow!" He said as he got up. He looked at the source of his fall; it was some metal. Steven decided to dig it out.

Since he was young it took him about an hour to dig it out fully. It was a huge sword. Steven tried to pick it up and it was surprisingly light. It's metal glinted in the sunlight as he turned it around. It was shaped as a kitchen knife. Steven knew he shouldn't play with swords or knives, but he just had to inspect it. He turned the hilt around and saw 4 diamonds placed next to each other one. A white one at the top, a yellow one on the left, a blue one on the right and a pink one on the bottom. Suddenly he felt searing pain in his stomach or more specifically, in his gem. The pain got so bad that he passed out.

Steven woke up a few hours later, just before sun down. He was a little dizzy, but he managed to sit up. Rubbing his gem he thought to himself _i can't tell Pearl, Garnet or Amethyst. Or they will not allow me to eat donuts again._ What a frightful thought, losing his access to donuts. He looked at the sun, which was already setting. Immediately he started running home, praying that the gems are not back.

Thankfully he arrived just in time. Steven had time to change (quickly) and get out his crayons and paper. Just as he put down the crayons the warp pad activated and the gems appeared.

"Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst! Your back!" He ran forward and gave everyone a hug, just as normal.

Then he sat down and started to draw. Normally when the gems got back Steven would draw a picture of what interesting thing he saw. It was Pearl's idea. Garnet went into her room to check on the bubbles, Amethyst sat watching TV and Pearl started making dinner. Steven decided to draw the 4 diamonds he saw on the sword. Garnet walked in and sat next to Steven, looking outside.

When he finished Steven ran up to Pearl and yelled "Pearl check this out!"

"Oh Steven thats….." Her eyes widened and she dropped the spoon she was stirring with when she saw his drawing.

"Pearl, is everything okay, WOAH!" said Amethyst when she saw Steven's drawing. Now Garnet was beginning to suspect that something was wrong. She walked up and when she saw the drawing, she just said "Steven, why don't you go take a shower."

Steven obeyed and as he walked down to the bathroom he heard Pearl say "How did he know…..?"


	8. Quick Announcement

**I am so buisy with school and my other fanfic (year 8 ain't that easy) that I don't have time to write this fanfic. I am so sorry. On the weekend I will try to compinsate for This by marking two Baby Steven fanfics in one day. Sorry again.?**


	9. Mothers day pt1

Steven heard about mother's day. He did not know what it was so he asked his dad.

"Mother's day is when you say 'thank you' and buy presents for your mommy. Don't worry about it though, your mommy isn't here now." greg winced. Steven knew he should stop asking.

"Thanks dad! Bye!" he said as he ran to a nearby store. Steven looked at the calendar. There was a square covered in pink that read mother's day! He looked at today's date. He had 18 days to get ready. Even though he didn't have a mom, he wanted to say thank you to the Crystal Gems. they were like his moms.

The problem was, he didn't have any money (being 6). He once heard about walking dogs and getting money. But there was only one dog in the entire city. Bucky, an old lady's dog. Steven could walk it, for sure, he could walk it but Steven suspected that won't be enough money.

He walked up to the old lady's house. Steven rang the doorbell and almost instantly, a lady appeared in the door.

"What do you need?" she asked. She was smiling.

"Uh… can i walk your dog for money?" he stuttered a bit

"Is five dollars okay for you?"

"Y-yes?"

The lady pushed out Bucky and said "bring him back in one hour."

The walk went pretty smooth until Bucky saw a squirrel. He went bananas running after it. Steven had to chase the dog through trees, mud pits, marshes and hard rocks. When Steven finally caught Bucky, he noticed how muddy that were. He did not know what time it was, but he did know that the old lady won't like it if her dog came back muddy. He and the dog raced to the car wash.

"Dad! Please spray me and Bucky with water." he yelled waving his hands. After explaining what happened Greg sprayed them both with water. They still had ten minutes left, so Steven didn't have to worry about being late. He peacefully walked back to the woman. She played him. He walked Bucky only one more time (the same thing happened, but this time they nearly fell off a cliff) and then quit.


	10. Mothers day Pt2

Steven had 14 days left and he only had ten dollars. Yesterday he walked by the sculpture's store. The man agreed to make a small sculpture of The crystal gems (steven gave him a photo) if Steven collected 40 dollars. And he should give it to him ten days prior, to make the sculpture. So now he had to collect 30 dollars in 4 days.

Steven first went to the post office. He asked the man if he has a job that he is willing to pay for. The man said that Steven could sort out the letters for 5 dollars a hour.

The man lead Steven to the back room. A huge pile of letters was in front of Steven.

"If you sort this pile and I will pay you 5 dollars. And if you deliver half of them i'll pay you another 5. So you sort them out by looking at the name on the envelope and then you find the same name on one of those cubbies. You put the envelope in the correct cubby."

Then he walked out leaving Steven alone with a pile of mail that is at least twice as high as him. When he pulled out the first envelope the mountain of mail fell on him"This will be long." He murmured to himself.

After two hours and dozens of paper cuts later, Steven finally received his money.

Then he had to deliver at least half. He used his bike to get around faster. Unfortunately that got Bucky barking and he started chasing Steven.

Another hour and dozen scratches later he got payed.

"Where were you?!" Asked Pearl alarmed by the number of cuts she had to put disinfect on.

"At the post office."

"What happened there?!"

"Well, first I had to sort out a huge pile of letters and then deliver them."

Pearl sighed. Another crazy Steven day.


	11. Mothers day pt 3

Steven woke up extremely early. He had to find something that will get him money. As a six year old, he was very capable of his age. So he decided to start mowing people's lawns.

He had two days until he had to pay for the statue. Steven walked towards the nice lady's house, suspecting she will probably pay him the most money.

"Sugar why are you so early?" She Asked greeting him with a smile.

"Can I mow your lawn and you will pay me?" Steven Asked as sweetly as he could.

"Let's see…. I will pay you 7 dollars. That enough?" She Asked.

"Yes!"

"But aren't you a little young to mow lawns?"

"No."

"Do you know how to use a lawn mower?"

"I am a fast learner."

"I'll come back in an hour, I need to go meet somebody." The lady waved and walked out. She gave him the lawn mower. She gave him the basics do's and don'ts. Then she left.

"Okay, I can do this." Steven spit on his hands (because that's what they do on TV) and started the lawn mower. First everything was fine until he lost control of the mower. It started driving around the lawn and nearly hit a nearby tree. Steven chased after it like there's no tomorrow. When he caught it finally, the lawn was already mowed.

He raked up the loose grass and was putting the remains in plastic bags, when the lady came back.

"You finished! What a good and capable boy! Stay here, I'll get the money."

A few minutes later she came back with the money.

"Here you go sweetie." Steven took the money and thanked her.

He did not want to mow any more lawns so he spent quite some time brainstorming. He finally decided to wash windows.

He went to mrs. Hamleys house. She gladly accepted Steven's offer and said that she will pay him 2 dollars.

Everything was great until the last second, when he fell off the ladder. He got a really nasty scratch, they had to put on stitches. But he did get paid.

"What happened?!" Screamed Pearl when she saw the stitches.

"I fell off the monkey bars?" Lied Steven.

Pearl hugged him. Garnet and Amethyst were in their rooms and doing something. Pearl was usually the only one who kept Steven company at night.


	12. Mothers Day pt4

Steven rubbed his thigh. That's where the stitches were. It hurt so bad. And yet he still got up and got dressed. He looked under his pillow (he kept the money there); there were 30 dollars ( he found a dollar while he was walking home) and only today left to get 10 more dollars.

Pearl l made him some breakfast and went to another mission.

"Promise me you won't do anything that might hurt you." She said as she was leaving "or else I am going to get a heart attack."

Steven ate breakfast as fast as he could and limped towards the door. He decided to make a lost and found. Three dollars per finding.

He made a sign and went to the boardwalk. His first customer was a man who lost his car keys. They were easy to find since Steven saw them on the way to the boardwalk. He gave the keys to the man and got three dollars. Another woman lost her phone. He found it in a nearby cafe. Another three dollars. Then things went downhill fast. A girl came up to him and said that she lost her cat. Steven agreed to find it for four dollars since the cat could run.

He set off walking around beach city looking for the cat. After an hour he spotted it. Steven ran towards it but the cat freaked out and started running away. Steven ran after it. It was hard chasing with the stitches, but he was not worried about them. In the morning Pearl bandaged then so if the stitches accidentally came undone, he'd be okay. The pain slowed him down just enough, so he could run after the cat, but not catch it. He spent hours after sunset catching it. He finally caught it around past midnight. Then the cat began fighting back. It started scratching and biting him. Steven was too tired to care.

He found the little girl's house and got his money.

When he returned home, the gems weren't there. Steven was too tired to even eat. He just washed up and washed all his cuts. He climbed into bed and almost instantly fell asleep…. until he heard the warp pad activate.

"We can't find him anywhere!" Skreached Pearl. "Where could he de?!"

"Pearl, ssshhh." Garnet pointed onto Steven's bed.

"Where was he?" Whispered amethyst.

"It doesn't matter. He's safe and that's most important. He might have gotten lost or something." Said Garnet.

"I swear, that kid will give me a heart attack some day." Mumbled Pearl


	13. Mothers Day pt5

Steven has been waking up so early the past few days, he nearly missed his alarm clock. He set it on 4 am because that's when the statue store is opening.

Pearl was asleep on the kitchen counter, which was strange, since gems don't need to sleep. Steven new that much by now. He didn't even change his clothes, just got out of bed and tiptoed outside with his money. He ran to the statue store just as it opened. The man gladly accepted the money and told Steven to pick the statue up the day before mother's all Steven needed was some decorations.

He continued his lost and found business. Thankfully no animals or children had to be found. He finally collected 20 dollars 5 days earlier than mother's day. He went to the decorations store and naught the best decorations he could find.

Finally he picked up the statue. It was perfect. It was a statue of them on the beach. Garnet was sitting behind Steven watching as he and Pearl and Amethyst made a sand castle. The statue itself wasn't tall or heavy. It was about 20 cm high.

The night of Mother's Day came and Steven put up the decorations, he turned off all the lights and hid behind the sofa awaiting the gems.

 **This one is short On purpose.**


	14. Mothers Day pt6

Pearl noticed how Steven was acting strange, always getting up early and doing something. Not to mention the injuries. When Steven came home the first time with a injury, he had scraped knees, a fairly normal child injury. The next day he came back with a dozen paper cuts and a couple of scratches, Pearl began to worry, a little.

The next day Pearl almost had a heart attack when she saw the stitches. Which was weird, considering that gems don't have hearts. The day after that he went missing, again.

When Steven didn't return home, Pearl was racing around town like a chicken. When they returned home and saw Steven in bed peacefully sleeping, Pearl couldn't help but notice the little specks of blood on the floor.

The mission they were going to attend on that day was fairly simple; to poof a corrupted gem and bubble it. Easier said than done.

The beast was huge and powerful. The one hour mission turned into a full scale battle in just 5 seconds. At last they poofed her and bubbled her.

"Let's call it a day and go back home. I bet it's like Steven's bedtime now." Suggested Amethyst.

"Yeah, what do you say Garnet?" Asked Pearl.

"Sure." She said.

When they warped back, it was completely dark in the room. Pearl felt for the light switch and flipped it on.

"SURPRISE!" Yelled Steven as he jumped out from behind the couch, throwing confetti.

"Whaaa…?" Said Pearl and then noticed the banner. It said in wonky letters 'Happy mothers Day'.

"Oh Steven you didn't have to!" Said Pearl as he hugged the gems.

"That's not all! I have a gift." He Said smiling. When he smiled like that you could see the gap between his teeth. Steven raced up the stairs occasionally limping from the stitches. He brought down a box.

"Here! I spent all week collecting money for this!" He Said.

"Does that explain why you've been coming home with all those scratches and bruises?" Asked Amethyst.

Garnet took the box and let Amethyst unwrap it. Inside was a beautiful small statue from the beach day they had a month or two ago.

"I ordered it!" He said.

"Oh Steven." Pearl hugged him tight and the others joined in.

This was something Rose would do. She would go out of her way and suffer for someone even if they don't need it, just too put a smile on their face.


	15. Single Mom

Again, Amethyst was left alone with Steven. Garnet and Pearl still hadn't gone over Rose's departure. They were both in their rooms.

Amethyst did miss Rose but she knew what it was like to be abandoned. She did not want the son of Rose Quartz feel the same was as she did when she was alone in the kindergarten.

Even as a baby, Steven was very capable. He could understand people. He knew that Amethyst loved to rough house, so he was always trying to look as buff as he could and would let Amethyst tickle him. He was like the baby brother she ever had. Steven loved to play with strings, and for that reason, Amethyst started growing her hair.

Pearl and Garnet scolded her, because long hair might interfere in a battle. It was ether missions or Steven. Of course she chose Steven.

Steven would see Pearl and Garnet go on missions and then see how Said Amethyst is, he would then try his best to draw ( remember he could barely sit).

Sometimes Amethyst would take Steven to her room, were they would always find some new stuff. She never knew she had the real Beach City Independence Declaration or the first copy of William Shakespeare's first play.

She absolutely adored playing pranks on Steven. Once she brought a jack-in-a-box for him. When the clown popped out, Steven's eyes widened and he went completely stiff. Then he would laugh and clap his hands. And the best part was that the reaction always stayed the same.

One day she was busy with feeding Steven when Garnet warped back.

"Oh, hey Garnet." Said Amethyst sweeping her hair away from her face. It had grown out so much that it touched the floor.

Garnet watched how Amethyst fed Steven for a moment or two when she said "how can you choose him over going on missions?!" That was weird. It didn't sound like Garnet at all.

"Well he is a baby and since you and Pearl don't wanna be around him, I have to look after him." Amethyst replayed casually.

"No, how can you stand to be with him, he is a constant reminder that Rose is gone!"

Amethyst looked at Garnet. "Well, Rose wanted this and she knew the consequences. She wanted us to experience something new! She did not want you and Pearl hiding from him! She wanted you to be his mother, because you are the more responsible ones! And what does she get? Me! The least responsible looking after him! Look I know that you know Rose more time than me. But remember before I met Rose, I was alone in that kindergarten for like 100 years. It was so lonely there that I had to resort to talking to rocks! I don't want the same to happen to Steven. I don't want him to grow up with only Greg and stories of the wonderful Crystal Gems that abandoned him because he 'took' Rose away. Don't get me wrong but I miss Rose too. I just try to move on and not dwell on the past. And I think you should too." Amethyst exhaled. She said everything that was on her mind.

Garnet thought for a moment then said: "you're right."

"Really? I mean of course I am."

"I really should stop dwelling over Rose. Since when are you so smart?"

"Oh just me… but what about Pearl? I don't think a speech will get her to accept Steven."

"Hmmmm. I think I got it!" Said Garnet snapping her fingers. "But first let's put Steven in bed." Garnet noticed how he was yawning.


	16. Bad Dreams

Pearl hated letting Steven sleep alone. But Garnet assured Pearl that everything will be okay. Steven was 5 at the time, he could handle going to the bathroom or getting something to drink.

"Bye!" Said Steven as the gems were stepping on the warp pad.

"Goodnight!" Amethyst Said back and warped away.

Steven snuggled up and fell asleep.

In his dream, he saw a red wasteland and a lot of gems fighting. Steven looked down and saw pink curly hair and a white dress. He looked around. He saw a gem that looked like Garnet. Except her outfit was like someone just splashed blue and pink paint on her and she had three eyes. Steven looked the other way. A gem was running towards him with a sword. Before anything could happen Pearl appeared out of nowhere. She jumped in front of him and in the process got impaled.

"Pearl!" Steven woke up screaming and crying. The gems had warped back a few minutes ago, and Steven didn't notice.

"What's wrong? Had a bad dream?" Asked Amethyst. She was sitting at the counter eating a bag of chips.

Steven nodded. Pearl walked up to his bed. Steven hugged her tightly.

"Now, now. Calm down. Everything is okay."

"No it's not. In my dream you and a gem that looked like Garnet were there! And then a sword stabbed you and you disappeared!" Steven began to cry harder.

When Pearl heard the story she recognized it. It was one of the early battles against Homeworld.

"Listen Steven, this was just a dream. Everything is okay." She hugged him. For now all she could do is hope he doesn't get any more gem dreams.


	17. Park day

"Amethyst! Steven is only 9 months old! He can't chew those chips. Not to mention that they are unhealthy." Pearl scolded Amethyst who was trying to feed the nine month old Steven a bag of Chaaaps.

It was a nice day so Garnet thought it might be nice to visit the park. The morning sun gleamed. Garnet had a vision earlier that day, about how there will be a mission to go to. She did not want Steven to miss such a nice day, so she pretended that she knew nothing until they arrive at the park.

"Pearl, Amethyst, there is a mission you have to attend to. It's my turn to take care of Steven, so don't kill each other."

"But Garnet…" complained Pearl. Garnet knew that they did not like going to missions together.

"No whining. And you should go soon, because that monster is about to burn up a village in the south." And on that note, both Pearl and Amethyst got up and ran towards the temple. When Pearl and Amethyst were out of view Garnet unfused.

Steven giggled when he saw Ruby and Sapphire. He was now used to Garnet unfusing into Ruby and Sapphire (which they stopped doing when Steven was one years old.)

"Hey Steven! Missed us?" Asked Ruby playfully.

"Yeah!"

Ruby and Sapphire both giggled. They played with Steven for some time until a police officer came up to them.

"Now kids, where are your parents?" He Asked with a smile.

"Parents?" Asked Ruby (gems don't have parents).

"He means like our guardians, like we are to Steven." Explained Sapphire.

"Ohh! Right! Sorry, gems don't have parents." Said Ruby.

"Now, now, kids. How old are you?"

"Give or take 6 thousand years." Replied Ruby casually. She gave a juice box to Steven.

"Now, let's stop playing pretend and tell me your real age."

Ruby and Sapphire looked at each other in confusion.

"Round 6 thousand years." Said Ruby getting a little annoyed.

"Listen, boy! If you don't…"

"YOU THINK I AM A BOY?!"

Sapphire decided it would be best to move Steven away from Ruby. She did not want him to be turned into toast.

"W-well Yes—"

"YOU THINK THAT I AM MALE?!"

"Ruby calm down. He doesn't know that gems are only female." Sapphire tried calming Ruby down.

"I am female!" Finished off Ruby trying to calm down. The ground around her set fire. Sapphire just waved her hand and ice crystals formed on the fire, extinguishing it.

That's when the officer decided that he needed to get the heck out of there.


	18. beach day

"I'm gonna catch you!" said Amethyst as she chased Steven down the beach. Steven would giggle with glee and run away as fast as his little legs could carry him. They were at the beach with Garnet and Pearl.

"Gotcha!" said Amethyst as she tackled him to the ground.

"Ha,ha! Amethyyyst!" sad Steven trying to push her off him.

"Amethyst, come here! We need to talk." said Pearl.

"Oh, come on! It's not like he doesn't mind being pinned to the ground!"  
"I don't." said Steven helpful. Pearl gave Amethyst a stern look.

"Urg! Fiiiiiiiiiiine!" she stomped towards them.

Steven decided to go on a small walk down the beach. He was 9 after all. He ran towards the temple and ran past it, to his favourite place to play in the water. He couldn't swim yet, so he played in the shallows. But he didn't know that the waves were strong that day and the heat from the sun made him a little woozy. So the high tide quickly snached him up and started carrying him to the sea, centimeter by centimeter.

At first he didn't notice, but then when he did, it was too late. The current swept him away. He flapped his arms wildly, desperately trying to stay aloft.

Meanwhile….

"Amethyst, remember, Steven is organic, so he could get hurt. And he probably can't go into his gem and reform."

"Urg, i see people doing that to each other on TV and they don't mind."

"Thats different!"

Garnet watched the two fight for a while. She noticed that Steven went somewhere, and to ensure his safety, she opened her third eye. She expected him to be at the donut shop or at the temple/house. What she did not expect to see, is him drowning. And this was not her far- into- the- future vision, it was a this-is-happening-right-now vision.

She ran towards were Steven, according to her vision, was now. Pearl and Amethyst just gave her strange glances, and went back to arguing.

Steven saw garnet coming.

"Gar-Ne-t!" he yelled out, wasting his breath.

"Steven!" Garnet saw him splashing, going farther and farther into the sea. She jumped in and swam towards him.

She dragged him onto the shore.

"Garnet!" steven started crying and hugged Garnet. She stroked his hair.

"I think it's about time you learn to swim."


End file.
